E4M2: Parallels (No End In Sight)

E4M2: Parallels is the second map of episode Blood Stained Earth of No End In Sight. It was designed by Emil Brundage (NaturalTvventy).

Walkthrough


This level includes multiple versions of the same layout: You start on the eastern side, in an area resembling a techbase. To the west, this layout is duplicated, rotated 180 degrees, and partially transformed by Hell. This narrative terms these the "normal side" (east) and "Hell side" (west). Triggering actions on one side (opening doors, raising platforms, etc.) will often do the same action on the counterpart side. Both sides must be traversed to reach the exit.

Note: Taking a particular action will render secret #10 inaccessible.

Blue key
Take the shotgun on the other side of the green column in front of you, then head north through the door. Follow the blue passage until you drop into a tan area. Head around and east to a circular hallway. Three tunnels filled with nukage lead to the center of the circle. Follow one to find an area with three walls making a triangle. In the middle is a column with three buttons.

Each button opens one of the triangle walls, revealing a wedge-shaped section of the circle. At the same time, one of the outside walls of a different wedge will open. You need to open at least two to get out of the circle. Each button also opens monster closets along the outside of the circle. The blue keycard is in the north-east wedge; radiation shielding suits can be found in the other two wedges.

One possible approach is to press the south and north-west buttons. Take the rad suit from the southern wedge. Double back to the north-east wedge, and jump to the ledge jutting out from the center. Clear out the imps standing on the round pillars, then climb them to reach the platform with the key, then exit through the outside wall. Alternatively, press all three buttons, take the same rad suit, but then use the stairs to exit to the circle. Proceed around the outside to the north-west wedge, and come in from the back to get the blue key.

Trip to the Hell side
Take the doorway leading east from the circle, to another nukage pool. Take the stairs up, and through the southern door to a metal room. Follow the far passage out and south-west until you reach a room with four red columns. Go through the blue door, then flip the right-hand switch to lower a platform across and below, revealing a wide hall behind it. Drop down and follow the hall north-east to a computer room. Flip the switch in the corner to reveal a teleporter which will send you to a "parallel" version of this layout -- the "Hell side", which appears on the west of the automap.

Yellow key
Step off the teleporter and head north down the wide hall, where several imps and some cacodemons await. You will see a lit arrow on the floor, pointing at the west wall nearest to the teleporter chamber. Press this wall to lower a lift, and ride it up. Turn left and head down some steps to a ledge overlooking a damaging blood pool. Drop down and run north to the staircase, climb it, then turn east and take a radiation suit.

Drop into the blood again and run south-west into an area with lava (mirroring the circle). Go south until you find a fiery tunnel leading to a wooden staircase. Instead of climbing that staircase, turn left/north, and find another staircase with armor bonuses. Climb it to an area with green platforms. Head east and north to find a skull switch. Press the switch to open the wall to the ledge above the teleporter chamber, and four yellow skull keys. Grab the keys, then step on the teleporter to return to the "normal side" (east) of the map.

Exit
On the normal side, head south through the wide hall to get back outside, then head north-west to the doorway. Take the stairs up and around to the south. Continue until you get to the lift across the hall that automatically lowers as you approach it. Take the lift up to the area with the red columns. Open the exit door using the yellow key, and press the switch behind it to move on to E4M3: Square Zero.

Other points of interest
From the exit door on the normal side, head north-west, then follow the passage, run-jumping over a large gap in the floor to find a chaingun. On the Hell side, you will find a rocket launcher in the same place.

The blue door on the Hell side reveals a supercharge, but taking it will cause a number of monsters to teleport in. In the adjacent lower-level passages, you can find partial invisibility and a berserk pack in the dead ends.

To the north of the starting point is a curved walkway with a blue floor, with notches cut in it. On the Hell side, its counterpart is brown, and drops down when you cross it. Press the skull switch on the north side of the brown walkway to open a marble wall to the east. Go through to find a dark room with a plasma gun. If you then visit the same room on the normal side, you will find two energy cell packs and two boxes of rockets, but approaching the items releases a large number of monsters into the area.

Secrets

 * 1) From the starting point, walk south off the ledge to the area below, and then enter the north-west doorway.  The north wall at the end of the short passage is a lift.  Lower it, get rid of the imps, then ride it up to a rocket, a box of bullets and an invulnerability. (sector 22)
 * 2) Go to the big hall in the center of the normal side of the map, with the teleporter at the north end (leading to the Hell side).  The eastern wall is made of brown sections.  The northern-most of these sections has ridges on the bottom instead of at the top.  Use it to lower a lift.  Ride it up and go around for a supercharge. (sector 79)
 * 3) Secret #1 has a duplicate on the Hell side.  An armor and four stimpacks are the rewards for this secret. (sector 449)
 * 4) At the western-most part of the Hell side is a lava-filled area that resembles the circular blue key area from the normal side of the map. Go to the north-west part of this area, and use the sides of the red brick walkway to lower it like a lift.  This also uncovers a hole with two medikits and an invulnerability. (sector 1007)
 * 5) In the southeastern-most area of the Hell side, you find three blocks with switches that raise floor sections to build staircases.  The obvious route is to the north, allowing you to run across the tops of the blocks.  Instead, build a staircase leading to the south.  This part is blocked off by bars on the Hell side, but open on the normal side.  Go there and step into the north-west corner to lower a lift, leading to a teleporter, taking you back in the Hell side, which is the secret.  The lift up on that side allows you to collect a supercharge, two medikits, green armor, and a computer area map. (sector 1025)
 * 6) When the blue walkway on the normal side has been lowered, flip the knife switch at the east end of the walkway to raise it again. Run to the opposite end of the walkway as it is rising up and look to your left to find an opening in the south-east wall.  Jump to this opening (you can stand on the threshold) and enter an area with rising/lowering blocks.  Go north-east until you spot a different section of wall, looking north.  This is a fake wall you can walk through, allowing you to retrieve some health bonuses. (sector 318)
 * 7) Just east of secret #6 is a block containing a megaarmor. (sector 291)
 * 8) At the northern-most tip of the normal side is a wall, creating two short east-west passages.  Use the tan wall section on the southern wall of the southern passage to reveal a secret room with rockets, a stimpack, and an imp. (sector 414)
 * 9) After obtaining a yellow key, go to the northern part of the Hell side, where there will be a yellow door and a red door.  Open the yellow door and use the teleporter to return to the normal side.  In the same spot that had the red door on the Hell side, is the yellow exit door.  Open the yellow door here, then quickly run back through the teleporter to the Hell side.  The red door will have opened with the yellow door; run in to collect the red key and the secret. (sector 658)
 * 10) On the normal side, raise the platform in front of the big hall, by using the other switch behind the blue door.  Then backtrack south, east, north-east, through the metal room, and to the ledge above the nukage pool.  Trip the lift and ride it up, then go through the opening to the north-west.  Continue south around and over the platform, then north along the west walkway.  You will come to a red door with a barrel under it.  Do not shoot this barrel or you will miss out on this secret.  Once you have the red key, open this door.  The barrel will keep it from closing, and it will repeatedly cycle up and down.  Go to the same hallway on the Hell side, and the counterpart door will also be cycling up and down.  Enter to get the secret (sector 696) and take the teleporter to reach a third version of the layout (to the north on the automap).  Grab the radiation suit then drop into the lava.  Go behind (northwest) the column with the evil eye, then climb the short steps and press the computer skull switch.  The platform in front of the big hall will lower; on Hurt Me Plenty or higher there will be a spiderdemon on it.  Behind that is an invisible bridge over lava.  At the far end, climb the steps to find a berserk pack, and an eye switch.  Use the switch to open the teleporter, which is the secret exit to E4M9: Vile Cross.

Current records
The records for the map at the Doom Speed Demo Archive are:

The data was last verified in its entirety on December 21, 2021.

Things
This level contains the following numbers of things per skill level: